We are standing on the brink of a new ubiquitous communication era, which may be referred to as “Internet-for-Everything”. Over the last decade or so, internet related technologies have developed so fast and been adopted by the society so widely and popularly that, in a not so distant near future, it is at least Applicants' view that the internet will provide data connectivity at anytime, from anywhere, and for anything.
One of the applications of internet may be in an intelligent traffic management system. Vehicle detection is a fundamental element of a traffic management system. Whether the goal of the system is to improve traffic flow and efficiency, enhance safety for drivers and passengers, and/or plan for future development of traffic-related infrastructure, on-site real-time detection of traffic volume, speed, occupancy, vehicle length, presence, and headway, all as part of traffic and vehicle related information, are vital for both real-time traffic management and non-real-time statistical analysis of traffic.
So far, different varieties of sensors for vehicle detection have been developed and used, which may include, for example, inductive loops, video cameras, and radar detectors. However, these conventional technologies all have their respective limitations. More importantly, a most common limitation of these technologies is that they all require wired power supply to the sensors. Industrial researchers have recently started to pay attention to develop wireless traffic sensors for traffic management applications. The benefits of using wireless traffic sensors include flexibility, easy of installation, remote maintenance, low cost, low power and high accuracy.